Brian Jacobel

Web Developer in Washington, D.C.

This page describes my recent work experiences. You can also view my formal resume here.

I'm currently a Senior Developer at Axios, a news startup dedicated to efficient and smart journalism. At Axios, I've led projects including building a server-rendering infrastructure for a large-scale React site, a high-performance Node/GraphQL server, a monitoring and alerting stack and a scalable CI/CD system. As one of the original members of the frontend team, I've helped enshrine the practices of testing, documentation and remote-friendliness in the Axios tech culture.

May 2017 • Present

At edX, I worked on modernizing the edX JavaScript developer experience, including laying the groundwork for new development in React, Redux and ES6. In addition, I built and maintained features for educators and learners, like a major overhaul of the discussion forums and a new course navigation experience.

April 2016 • May 2017

At Localytics I started as a generalist, but found a passion for frontend development in JavaScript and grew those skills to take ownership of parts of Localytics' frontend code. While at Localytics, I:

helped build the Remarketing feature, which drove over a quarter million dollars in ARR in its first quarter

worked on debt reduction across the Localytics stack, including migrating Remarketing's AngularJS code from Coffeescript to ES6 and from the Rails asset pipeline to Webpack.

built a React app (powered by AWS Lambda) that helps manage and secure access to a massive AWS fleet.

helped document and package that React work into a toolkit that will be used for future internal tools.

July 2015 • January 2015

My first post-grad job was as a Web Developer at Raizlabs, a Boston mobile development firm. As a member of the web development team, I created responsive web applications, scalable backend services, and APIs that drive awesome apps. I worked on a wide variety of projects, including:

a Ruby on Rails and AngularJS interactive marketing tool that was seen by over 1,500 medical professionals across the U.S.

REST APIs for an innovative new telecommunications app, an amusement park with global reach, and a Fortune 50 retailer

a blazing fast data collection backend using Go and MongoDB that scales to 10,000 concurrent users

Every single level of the stack, from pixel-perfect design implementation in HTML and Sass to DevOps with Ansible, Docker and Amazon Web Services.

June 2014 • June 2015

Over the summer of 2013, I worked at Atlantic Media on the development team behind the web properties of The Atlantic and The Atlantic Wire. Using Django and PHP, I worked with a small, agile team of full-stack developers on projects including an interactive feature seen by 250,000 visitors. I continued to do freelance work for the Atlantic through the following school year.

June 2013 • February 2014

Starting in the spring of 2013, I became the web developer for The Bowdoin Orient, inheriting a large PHP code base that encompassed both the site's front-end and the newsroom CMS for editors. While maintaining that code base, I worked on a next-generation system built on Django, Amazon Web Services, end-to-end testing and high scalability.